The Potting Shed

Guides, gift ideas and honest answers from the people who hand-pack every kit.

All articles Kintsugi Cheese making Gin making Meat Chilli sauce Wine making Kimchi Gift guides
A ball of white stretchy cheese being unwound into strands on a wooden board in a farmhouse kitchen.
Oaxaca cheese: Mexico's stretchy string cheese and how to make it
What Oaxaca cheese is, how it differs from mozzarella, and how the pasta filata stretch you learn making mozzarella gets you an Oaxaca-style ribbon.
A broken white bowl part-way through a golden repair, with epoxy, gold powder and a spreader laid out on a wooden table.
Seven kintsugi mistakes beginners make (and how to avoid them)
From mixing epoxy by eye to gilding at the wrong moment, the seven errors that spoil a first golden repair, and the simple fixes for each one.
Bright red chillies fermenting in a brine-filled glass jar next to bottles of finished hot sauce on a rustic wooden table.
Fermented hot sauce explained: why fermenting changes the flavour
What fermenting does to chillies, why lactic acid tastes so different from vinegar, and how fermented sauces compare with quick blended ones.
A slab of pork belly coated in dry curing salt and spices resting in a dish on a rustic wooden kitchen table.
How long to cure bacon: a day-by-day guide to dry curing
Dry curing bacon takes about a week. Here is what happens on each day, why the joint changes the timing, and how to tell when the cure is done.
A jar of dark rum infusing with cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves and strips of orange peel on a farmhouse kitchen table.
What goes into spiced rum? The spices, explained one by one
Vanilla, cassia, clove, nutmeg, allspice, star anise, ginger and citrus peel: what each spice contributes to spiced rum and how fast each one infuses.
Thin strips of seasoned beef resting in a marinade dish beside bowls of spices on a rustic wooden table.
Jerky marinades: five flavour directions and how to build your own
Wet marinade or dry rub, what a marinade really does to beef, five flavour directions to try and a simple five-slot formula for building your own.
Heads of ripe black elderberries beside a bottle of deep purple homemade elderberry wine.
Elderberry wine: autumn's richest hedgerow wine
Why elderberry makes the deepest country wine, how to identify and strip the berries safely, the four-stage method, and why this one really needs ageing.
A pressed block of homemade paneer on a cheesecloth beside cubes frying golden in a pan.
Paneer at home: the cheese you can make before dinner
Why acid-set paneer is the most forgiving cheese to start with, where it sits in the Cheese of the World kit, and the milk rule that decides everything.
A jar of freshly made kimchi with chilli paste and cabbage on a rustic kitchen worktop.
Kimchi not fermenting? Temperature, salt and time explained
How to tell whether kimchi is actually fermenting, what temperature and salt each do, the small things that stall a batch, and how sour to let it get.
A broken ceramic bowl part-mended with bright golden seams beside epoxy, a mixing card and gold powder.
Kintsugi step by step: your first golden repair from break to finish
A walkthrough of a first kintsugi repair: planning the pieces, mixing the epoxy, joining seam by seam, applying the gold and caring for the finished piece.
A piece of pork belly being rubbed with dry cure and spices on a wooden board in a farmhouse kitchen.
Curing salt explained: what it does and why bacon needs it
What is actually in a bacon cure, what the salt and the nitrites each do, the two rules you should never bend, and how the cure works step by step at home.
A jar of vodka infusing with juniper berries, citrus peel and spices beside a tasting pipette.
How long to infuse gin: a timing guide for botanicals
How long each gin infusion takes, the four things that change the timing, how to taste your way to the right moment, and how to fix a batch you overshot.
A gin and tonic in a copa glass filled with ice, lemon peel and juniper berries on a wooden table.
The perfect gin and tonic: ratios, ice, glass and garnish
The right gin to tonic ratio, why ice is the part everyone gets wrong, highball versus copa, how to match a garnish to the botanicals, and serving homemade gin.
Freshly picked red and green chillies beside bottles of homemade hot sauce on a rustic wooden table.
From plant to bottle: turning your chilli harvest into hot sauce
When to pick chillies, how to dry or freeze a glut, the simple structure behind every hot sauce, and how to control the heat and bottle it properly.
Freshly picked blackberries beside a demijohn of deep red country wine on a farmhouse kitchen table.
Blackberry wine at home: the September hedgerow classic
Why blackberry is the best first country wine, the kit and equipment you need, the four fermentation stages explained, and how to fix a batch that misbehaves.
Basket of foraged blackberries, elderberries and sloes on a rustic wooden table beside a hedgerow.
Hedgerow foraging for beginners: what to pick in late summer and autumn
The six hedgerow fruits a beginner can pick with confidence, when each one ripens, the safety and legal rules, and how to turn a haul into country wine.
Learning how to make kimchi at home with napa cabbage, gochugaru chilli paste and a fermentation bag
How to Make Kimchi at Home: A Beginner's Guide
What kimchi is, how lactic fermentation works, the step-by-step method from cabbage to fermentation bag, what can go wrong and how to know your batch is safe.
Jar of sloes, sugar and gin steeping to show how to make sloe gin at home
How to Make Sloe Gin: The Classic Hedgerow Recipe
How to make sloe gin the traditional way: when to pick sloes, the classic hedgerow method, the three month wait and what else your autumn haul can become.
Biltong vs jerky comparison with homemade biltong and beef jerky strips side by side
Biltong vs Jerky: What's Actually the Difference?
The real difference between biltong and jerky: origin, cut, marinade, drying and texture compared fairly, plus which one you should make at home first.
The Scoville scale from mild to superhot, ranking how hot chilli peppers are
The Scoville Scale Explained: How Chilli Heat Is Measured
What the Scoville scale is, where it came from, how chilli heat is measured in Scoville units, and a mild to superhot ladder of the peppers you know.
Home cured bacon on a board, showing how to cure bacon at home with a dry cure
How to Cure Bacon at Home: A Simple Dry-Cure Guide
How to cure bacon at home with a simple dry cure: what curing is, dry cure vs brine, the honest nitrite answer, a step-by-step method and fixes.

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Chilli sauce making kit with two bottles of homemade sauceFood Kits Hedgerow wine making kit with three bottles of homemade wineDrink Kits Kintsugi repair kit box with gold-repaired bowlsCraft Kits Ultimate gin making kit with two homemade pink ginsGift Kits